monty python

That perky little Monty Python motto came in mighty handy at Tuesday’s opening night of “Spamalot.” The inaugural production of the new Broadway San Jose series encountered a box office snafu that led to an endless will-call line that snaked around the Center for the Performing Arts and delayed the show by almost half an hour.

Happily, the curtain went up before there was a peasant uprising, and the audience was duly rewarded with a delightfully daft production of Eric Idle and John Du Prez’s Tony-winning “Spamalot.” It’s a giddy parody of all things Python that’s sure to enchant everyone who knows their Finnish fish-slapping song from their knights who say “Ni!” The holy grail of Monty Python musicals holds court in San Jose only through Sunday, so if you’re in the mood for a spot of medieval mindlessness, make haste.

Slyly directed by Mike Nichols, this cheesy spoof winks so hard it almost puts its eye out. When the clueless King Arthur (Christopher Gurr) goes off on a quest for the grail, the anachronisms hit the fan, no pun is left unturned and bowel movements figure prominently. Political correctness gets put through the shredder in the festival of outrageousness that mocks the aristocracy, gay people, plague victims and the entire nation of France. Suffice to say that God, who sounds a lot like John Cleese and wears a skirt, makes a cameo. Oh, and did we mention the song about the Jews?

Say no more.Not content to thumb its nose at real-world taboos, “Spamalot” also pokes fun at the realm of Broadway. Everyone from Andrew Lloyd Webber to Stephen Sondheim gets jabbed in a series of shameless sketches. The Lady of the Lake (Merle Dandridge) is a saucy in-joke on legs who sings the never-ending show tune, “The Song That Goes Like This.”

While the power-ballad gag gets repeated once too often, Dandridge milks the yuks like a dairy maid. This aquatic uber-diva never goes anywhere without her barely clad backup singers, the Laker girls (natch), who take any excuse to shake their, ahem, pompoms.

In fact, since so much of the comedy in “Spamalot” is of the distinctly juvenile variety, I brought along a ringer to the show, my godson Karl. A lifelong devotee of the order of Python, the Fremont 14-year-old was especially fond of the snotty Frenchman (the exquisitely silly Matthew Greer), who farts in one’s general direction. He also favored the bits about the killer rabbit, the amputation-happy knight and the head-bonking monks.

We saw eye to eye on Christopher Sutton, who has a genius for willy-nilly ninnies such as not dead Fred, the poor chap who wants off the corpse wagon in the classic “I’m Not Dead Yet” sketch, and the prancing Prince Herbert, who helps Sir Lancelot (Greer again) get in touch with his inner dancing queen. Greer, for his part, almost steals the show with a priceless bit of ad-libbing about Kanye West in the “very expensive” forest sequence.

Make no mistake, “Spamalot” is not perfect. This is the rare Broadway musical that was actually funnier in its downsized 90-minute Vegas version. Narration seems unnecessary in the kingdom of nonsense. Plus, Gurr lacks the deadpan gravity of his predecessor (John O’Hurley of “Seinfeld” fame). And when it comes to splashy showgirl follies-style numbers, sometimes less is more, people.

Still, subtlety is beside the point when it comes to coconut-trotting and swallow migration, eh? Heck, many theatergoers indulged their hard-core Python habit by beating the actors to the punch with classic wisecracks. And if that’s not your cup of tea, you can go and boil your bottom.

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT…This just in from the folks at “Spamalot,” which is about to launch its long-awaited quest for the Holy Grail in San Francisco…. By order of His Silliness King Arthur and the thoroughly lackadaisical Knights of the Round Table, tuner fans in general and Python heads in particular are hereby invited to create a video of their performance of “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” and upload the video for a chance to be featured in a TV commercial. All the details on how to enter the contest are here. Now go and boil your bottom!

All hail the knights who say Ni! Heads-up my fellow faithful Python buffs. Tickets go on sale 2/27 for the long-awaited California premiere of “Spamalot.” Lovingly “ripped-off” from “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” this must-see kitsch extravaganza charts King Arthur’s cheeky adventures with flatulent Frenchmen, serial-killer rabbits and one extremely spunky legless knight. Starring that master of the art of the deadpan John O’Hurley (of “Seinfeld” and “Family Feud” fame), the Tony-winning tuner runs May 22 through July 5 at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Theatre. Perhaps it goes without saying, but I fart in your general direction, no?